Florida Gators News: Trey Smack has big debut, Ben Shelton falls short, More

Week One of the NFL season is already almost in the books, and among the former Gators who impressed the most to open the 2026 season was former Florida kicker Trey Smack. Even though his Green Bay Packers squad blew it against Minnesota, Smack did his part and wasn’t the reason why.

Smack went 3/3 on field goal attempts, including a long of 59 yards. He did miss an extra point, but the major talking point from the game came in the 4th quarter when Smack drilled a field goal that would have given Green Bay an eight point lead, but the Packers elected to take the points off the board after a Minnesota penalty to set up 4th and one.

Green Bay went for a QB sneak, failed, and everything fell apart from there.

Ben Shelton falls short in US Open final

Former Florida tennis star Ben Shelton’s bid at history at the US Open fell just short as he fell to No. 1-ranked Alexander Zverev in four sets (6-3, 7-6, 5-7, 6-2) in the finals on Sunday. Shelton had a first-serve percentage of 74%, but he just wasn’t able to generate the aces like he had been all tournament long. Shelton wound up having his serve broken four times while breaking Zverev just once.

Shelton was trying to become the first American man to win the US Open since 2003. This was the first major final that Shelton had qualified for. His previous best was the semifinals at the 2023 US Open and at the 2025 Australian Open.

This was the final major of the year, but it should provide a springboard for Shelton to try to make a run at the 2027 Australian Open.

Feleipe Franks makes special teams play

Back to the NFL, one-time Florida QB Feleipe Franks has taken quite the journey to carve out a role in the NFL. After transferring from Florida to finish out his college career at Arkansas, Franks has switched to tight end and, little by little, keeps finding a way to stick around in the NFL.

Currently with the Carolina Panthers, Franks took 22 snaps on special teams on Sunday, and he went viral after a punishing hit he delivered during a kickoff return.

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